Inscriptions:

Alternate Title(s):

Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 (Display Title)

Department:

Paintings

Classification:

Paintings

Object Type:

Painting

Object Number:

87.PA.96

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James Ensor took on religion, politics, and art in this scene of Christ entering contemporary Brussels in a Mardi Gras parade. In response to the French pointillist style, Ensor used palette knives, spatulas, and both ends of his brush to put down patches of colors with expressive freedom. He made several preparatory drawings for the painting, including one in the J. Paul Getty Museum's collection.

Ensor's society is a mob, threatening to trample the viewer–a crude, ugly, chaotic, dehumanized sea of masks, frauds, clowns, and caricatures. Public, historical, and allegorical figures along with the artist's family and friends made up the crowd. The haloed Christ at the center of the turbulence is in part a self-portrait: mostly ignored, a precarious, isolated visionary amidst the herdlike masses of modern society. Ensor's Christ functioned as a political spokesman for the poor and oppressed–a humble leader of the true religion, in opposition to the atheist social reformer Emile Littré, shown in bishop's garb holding a drum major's baton leading on the eager, mindless crowd.

After rejection by Les XX, the artists' association that Ensor had helped to found, the painting was not exhibited publicly until 1929. Ensor displayed Christ's Entry prominently in his home and studio throughout his life. With its aggressive, painterly style and merging of the public with the deeply personal, Christ's Entry was a forerunner of twentieth-century Expressionism.

Tricot, Xavier. "Chronology." In Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, exh. cat. Catherine de Zegher, ed. (New York: The Drawing Center, with University of Minnesota Press, 2001), pp. 224, 232.

Hoozee, Robert. "Drawings and Etchings." In Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, exh. cat. Catherine de Zegher, ed. (New York: The Drawing Center, with University of Minnesota Press, 2001), pp. 36-37, fig. 20.

Canning, Susan M. "The Devil's Mirror: Private Fantasy and Public Vision." In Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, exh. cat. Catherine de Zegher, ed. (New York: The Drawing Center, with University of Minnesota Press, 2001), pp. 68-69, 77n49.

Maeyer, Marcel de. "Mystic Death of a Theologian." In Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, exh. cat. Catherine de Zegher, ed. (New York: The Drawing Center, with University of Minnesota Press, 2001), pp. 187, 200.

Todts, Herwig. "The Grotesque in Ensor's Oeuvre." In Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, exh. cat. Catherine de Zegher, ed. (New York: The Drawing Center, with University of Minnesota, 2001), pp. 207-8, 212.

Floorizoone, Patrick. "Between Drawing and Painting: Color in the Graphic Works of James Ensor." In James Ensor: A Collection of Prints Presented for Sale by Artemis Fine Arts and C. G. Boerner (New York: C. G. Boerner, 2002), p. 16.

Moffatt, Frederick C. "Drawing upon the Urban Experience: Joseph Delaney's New York." In Life in the City: The Art of Joseph Delaney, exh. cat. (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee, 2004), pp. 12-13, ill.

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